Personalities
The following are some the important historical figures that will exist within the game. Their roles are completely altered from the historical facts, starting with Tesla's battery to the Kaiser becoming the Black Baron and forming the Federation of the Air. Nikola Tesla. Will be the pre-eminent Mad Scientist of the era up until his rescue sometime in the mid 1930s. In 1911 he will perfect an improved electric battery, the equivalent of year 2000 batteries. This will allow the extension of the electric car into the campaign era, in competition with the petrol car. Henry Ford will invest in the Tesla battery and develop a hybrid model H Ford that will be in production by 1913. The battery will spread to many other areas of modern life, in various shapes and sizes. It is NOT small however. The smallest Tesla battery will be the size of a modern car battery. The power source will be based on the metal nickel. Tesla will also make improvements to the internal combustion engine during the war, working with Henry Ford's backing, such that improved engines will become available around 1920 to power the great zeppelins. He will perfect the IonJet engine, a form of jet engine. The IonJet requires a huge burst of electrical energy to start up but once running only a small amount of power to keep it running. The IonJet will be fully developed by the time Tesla is rescued around 1935, with the Black Baron beginning to deploy it in various forms at that time. The IonJet is not as powerful as a jet engine, but it is far simpler, having very few moving parts, and can be made small enough to use a rocket backpacks for elite Rocketeer troops (which begin appearing around 1936). IonJets push air to create power, but in doing so they ionise it to such a point that it is toxic for a short time, and can build up dangerous levels of charge. Use of IonJets requires plenty of ventilation and gas masks to avoid toxic poisoning (more details in the inventions page). Prof Montgomery Eccles Is a prominent Mad Scientist in the employ of the English at the end of the Great War. He will defect in 1931 to the Black Baron, aided by the players who are duped into thinking he is being held captive against his will. He will become the dominant Mad Scientist after Tesla is rescued (or killed). Eccles will develop an advanced submarine during the Great War, but will then secretly leak the plans to the germans and sabotage their development by the British. He will also work on several other major military weapon systems (an improved tank, a sonic ray gun and a silent projectile gun). Graf von Zeppelin Inventor of the Zeppelin Airship. Difficulties with zeppelins will see their fall from favour in germany during the war. However as the war is coming to an end Zeppelin will complete the prototype of a new airship that has much better handling, using new electric engines developed using tesla batteries. When the Junta takes over they will cancel Zeppeling production, in response to this Zeppelin accept the Black Barons offer of financial support in exchange for technical developments in his airships. Zeppelin will leave Germany with all the remaining German airships. taking the Kaiser and his followers with him. He will drop the Kaiser off at the Azores with most of the fleet and continue on to New York and create Zeppelin Airship Incorpated as a private venture entity, and will begin working in secret for him, passing on developments in zeppelin technology in return for cash. Roger Harper CEO of Monarch Airways, and rival of Zeppelin. He will enter the market around 1924 and is directly involved in the 1925 mission to the North Pole. He provides a source of funds for players, and can provide them with a supreme workshop as required. He will also make several small advances in zeppelin design and operation, such as Goop Balls/Patches. The Black Baron The character of the Black Baron will be Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, but the organisation known as the Black Baron, and later as the Federation of the Air (FOTA), is a large group of elite german scientists who flee post war germany. They take with them nearly all the technology related to zeppelins and u-boats (the Eccles versions) developed in the last years of the war and take over the Azores Islands. Here they build a huge secret underground base. They go to the Azores for several reasons, its dominant position in the Atlantic, its isolation and the secret discovery of a huge helium resource beneath it which is used to lift their zeppelins. It is also an entrance point to the Hollow World, but the Black Baron will not actually realise this. Chaos & Illuminati Is not the enemy of Maxwell Smart, but a eastern equivalent of the Illuminati, a lose collection of powerful and partly insane individuals. All members of Chaos and the Illuminati were born on the 29th February of the last year of the century. On occassions this means that none are born, as in 1800 which is not a leap year. However all Illuminati age very slowly after reaching adulthood, each birthday (29/2) being as one year of a normal mans life (roughly 4 to 1, so they can expect to live 250-300 years). Most Illuminati are reclusive and have little to do with everyday life. Some however, usually those who are approaching death who suddenly feel a need to dominate the world or find a cure for death, feel driven to dominate their shorter lived brothers. Agents of Chaos and the Illuminati are not enemies of the Centurions but often come into conflict. The Men in Black Aliens. King Kong Super genious great ape. Doctor Mesmer Master of the Mind Lord Tokugawa Necromancer and Agent of Chaos Doctor Klaw Agent of Chaos Mr Smith Bolshevik Agent extraordinary. The Hollow World. One of the major secrets that the Centurions hold is the existence of the Hollow World. A lost land beneath the surface of the existing world with a few limited avenues of entry. The Hollow World is NOT a huge globe within a globe, it is merely a large number of connected caverns able to support life, possibly constructed by the Atlanteans and then abandoned. The Hollow World is merely a parrallel story line available to the GM as a diversion, a more heroic place.